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Building on the 1994 COAG Water Reform Framework, the NWI is a shared commitment by governments to increase the efficiency of Australia's water use, leading to greater certainty for investment and productivity, for rural and urban communities and for the environment.

Under the NWI, governments have made commitments to:

prepare comprehensive water plans

achieve sustainable water use in over-allocated or stressed water systems

introduce registers of water rights and standards for water accounting

The 2011 report was also a comprehensive review of the NWI. The Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities provided a submission in April 2011 in response to specific questions from the National Water Commission.

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National Water Commission

The National Water Commission was established in 2004 to drive national water reform under the National Water Initiative. Its responsibilities included the monitoring, auditing and assessment of national progress on the National Water Initiative and other activities to promote national water reform objectives.

The Commission was abolished in 2014 with the repeal of the
National Water Commission Act 2004, and the Commission’s functions have now been transferred to other agencies.